“Silicon Valley is a mindset, not a location.”
Castbox
Castbox is an award winning global podcast platform that enables anyone to easily find, access, create and enjoy spoken audio content. Castbox gives users access to endless content in multiple languages, anywhere, through any device. Castbox’s proprietary technology includes features like curated podcast recommendations and in-audio deep search to customize the listening experience.
Advano
Combining nanotechnology with fundamental chemical engineering principles to accelerate the renewable energy revolution. Backed by: Y Combinator, Data Collective (DCVC), Anorak VC, Fifty Years VC, Social Impact Capital
Trevi Systems
Trevi Systems is a forward osmosis desalination company focusing on energy efficient water purification from a variety of application: saltwater, brackish water and industrial waste-water to clean water.
EFD Corporation
EFD patented a globally significant desalination system that eliminates environmentally toxic brine, the byproduct of existing desalination technologies today. Brine causes environmental damage and is a byproduct of desalination plants, agricultural runoff, industrial processes, oil production and sewage processing. Brine disposal most often is released into the ocean killing marine life and creating ocean “dead zones.” EFD is poised to alleviate one of the greatest threats to the planet – the increasingly rapid depletion of fresh, safe and usable water to sustain life.
Talroo
Talroo’s data-driven talent attraction platform enables companies to reach the best audiences to deliver hires. Providing access to Jobs2Careers, one of the largest job search platforms in the industry, Talroo provides an efficient, marketing-based approach to finding talent. Talroo was created to unify the Jobs2Careers brand with a growing suite of employer solutions. For more information, visit talroo.com
AeroFarms
AeroFarms is on a mission to transform agriculture by building and operating environmentally responsible farms throughout the world to enable local production at scale and nourish our communities with safe, nutritious, and delicious food. AeroFarms is the commercial leader in indoor farming. They grow without sun or soil in a fully-controlled indoor environment. They have optimized their patented aeroponic growing system for faster harvest cycles, predictable results, superior food safety and less environmental impact.
2RedBeans
2RedBeans is the largest dating/matchmaking platform for Chinese diaspora around the world. We take a women-first approach in our product design and services. We utilize AI technology to power our scammer filtering process as well as our matching algorithms. Currently we are incorporating blockchain technology to our matchmaking ecosystem to enable anyone, anywhere to contribute to the love and relationship of people around them.
d.light
d.light is a global leader and pioneer in delivering affordable solar-powered solutions designed for the two billion people in the developing world without access to reliable energy. d.light provides distributed solar energy solutions for households and small businesses that are transforming the way people all over the world use and pay for energy. Through four hubs in Africa, China, South Asia and the United States, d.light has sold close to twenty million solar light and power products in 62 countries, improving the lives of over 80 million people. d.light is dedicated to providing the most reliable, affordable and accessible solar lighting and power systems for the developing world and reaching 100 million people by 2020
OIGETIT
OIGETIT (oh I get it) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine that delivers INSTANT News (about any person, place or thing) within MINUTES of appearing on the web. OIGETIT’s news results include: SENTIMENT score (indicating whether the news is positive or negative) and; TRENDING indicator (indicating whether the news is gaining or losing popularity).
Porifera Inc.
Porifera is a start-up company developing advanced membranes, elements and systems with a commercial focus on water treatment and product concentration.
DigiLens
DigiLens is helping companies free information from the confines of physical devices to a convenient and relevant location—right in front of you—allowing you to engage with your environment in a more meaningful way.
Fictiv
Fictiv is transforming how teams design, develop, and deliver the next generation of hardware products. Our platform seamlessly connects hardware teams with manufacturers, to help companies get to market faster. Since its founding in 2013, Fictiv has helped innovators like Facebook, Tesla, and, IDEO develop more than 100,000 parts.
Epitomics
Epitomics – an Abcam Company is dedicated to developing their breakthrough rabbit monoclonal antibody technology (RabMAb) for research, diagnostics and therapeutics. The company has utilized a unique and proprietary RabMAb technology invented by scientists at Loyola University of Chicago and the University of California at San Francisco. This enabling platform produces high quality antibodies that have the potential to be used in the broad areas of research, diagnostics and therapeutics.
Pivot Bio
Fueled by an innovative drive and a deep understanding of the microbiome, Pivot Bio is pioneering game-changing advances in crop nutrition. Our proprietary ON Technology™ harnesses the power of naturally occurring microbes to provide more nutrients to crops. It’s a smart, sustainable way for farmers to improve yield as they work to help feed the world’s growing population. Learn how you can join the Pivot Bio team today — and help us create a better tomorrow — at pivotbio.com/careers.
Catalog Technologies
Catalog Technologies is an IT company that engages in encoding the world’s digital information in DNA. The company is bringing cutting-edge synthetic biology technologies to the world of information storage.
QT Medical, Inc.
QT Medical, Inc. is a medical device startup incorporated in 2013 as a spinoff of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) based in Torrance, CA. QT Medical aims to bring high quality 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) to homes by innovating technologies.
Doc.ai
Doc.ai is a computer software that offers blockchain based AI that performs deep learning computations on quantified biology for predictive analytics & personal health insights. The company is on a mission to help its customer decrease their educational burden and expand their decision tools to better attract, inform and engage with their customers.
Iownit Capital and Markets, Inc.
Iownit Capital and Markets, Inc. is a financial services and technology firm focusing on developing and implementing innovative blockchain based capital raising platform. We are dedicated to building a regulatory compliant solution that brings 21st century technology to new segments of capital markets.
Archer Software Corporation
Oh My Green
U Network
Franklin Urteaga
CEO & Co-Founder
Franklin Urteaga - OIGETIT
Former Clinton White House Tech Advisor + Obama Campaign Aide. Expertise in Tech Start-Ups, Business Development, & Fundraising. Helped build global brands (JDate, AmericanSingles, and ChristianMingle). Launched 1st White House “Internet Day” to promote Internet nationally; Helped to grow online dating worldwide; Launched 1st INSTANT News Engine worldwide. Cross-Border Innovation Expert: Invited as Keynote Speaker to 7 cities in China to discuss Innovation Trends + Artificial Intelligence + Unicorn Companies + Sharing Economy Companies + President Xi’s One Belt One Road. Recently, was only American Entrepreneur Invited to be Keynote Speaker at the famous 2017 “Zhongguancun Forum” in Beijing, China.
David Zilberman
Managing Director
David Zilberman - Comcast Ventures
David brings a mix of operational, technical and advisory expertise to his decade of experience at Comcast Ventures, focusing on enterprise software, cybersecurity and financial services. He started his career at Lehman Brothers in investment banking, then held a senior business development role at Flarion Technologies, where he played a pivotal role in the company’s fundraising activities and eventual acquisition by Qualcomm. David serves on the boards of AtScale, Bay Dynamics, Bento, College Ave, CTI Towers, EdgeConneX, Lendio and Vox Media as well as non-profit education organization, BELL. He graduated with a finance degree from Binghamton University.
Leslie Bottorff
Managing Director
Leslie Bottorff - GE Ventures
Senior Venture capital investment professional with over 20 years experience investing in medical technology and digital health companies. Prior to investing, 19 years operating management experience as a sales and marketing executive launching novel medical devices and procedures, defining strategies, and developing new markets and applications for both multinational and venture backed start-up companies.
Randy Williams
CEO & Founder
Randy Williams - Keiretsu Forum
Randy Williams founded Keiretsu Forum in September 2000 to provide a disciplined and structured approach to angel investing. Mr. Williams’s passion for investing and bringing together like-minded community leaders has created a powerful and giving environment for entrepreneurs. With over 2,800 angel investor members throughout 52 chapters on 3 continents Keiretsu Forum is the largest angel investment community in the world. Keiretsu Forum, headquartered in San Francisco, has offices throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and India.
Gabriel Kra
Managing Director
Gabriel Kra - Prelude Ventures
Gabriel Kra founded Prelude Ventures’ cleantech platform in 2009, after more than 15 years of experience developing companies, both as an entrepreneur and investor. He is responsible for overseeing the firm’s investments across a broad range of new energy innovations. Gabriel serves on the board of directors for Renew Financial, Ripple Foods, Sense Labs, PLANT PV, ClearMetal and Natron Energy, and he is actively involved with the firm’s investments in Citrine, Metalenz, Zymergen, Spark Thermionics, QuantumScape and Yerdle. Gabriel also serves on the Board of Directors of Activation Energy, and on advisory boards of Cyclotron Road and Prime Coalition.
Shawn Carolan
Partner
Shawn Carolan - Menlo Ventures
Shawn Carolan is a partner at Menlo Ventures, where he focuses on IT investments in the consumer sector. During his tenure, he has served as lead investor in standout companies such as Roku, Uber, and Siri (acquired by Apple), and in IMVU and JUMP Bikes, more recently. Shawn received his BS and MS in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. For fun, he enjoys hiking with his family, running with his wife, Jennifer (founder of Reach Capital), snowboarding, and motorcycling.
Doug Renert
Founding Partner
Doug Renert - Tandem Capital
An entrepreneur now helping other entrepreneurs build successful businesses. Launched Tandem in 2007 as Silicon Valley’s mobile industry accelerator fund to work side-by-side with great founding teams, investing our sweat and funds to increase their odds of success. Over 20 years of tech experience building and helping startups at Oracle, DLA and Tello.
Anish Patel
Senior Investment Director
Anish Patel- SAIC Capital
Anish is currently Senior Investment Director at SAIC Capital, led 10 direct investments and currently responsible for 8 portfolio companies ( Fingertips Labs, YourMechanic, Solid Energy, SDCmaterials, Savari , Via Transportation, Circle Financial and undisclosed company). He primarily focuses on technologies related to autonomous vehicles, new business models, financial technology and big data / artificial intelligence.
Before SAIC Capital, Anish was an Investment Manager at General Motors Ventures for four years. At GM Ventures he led 9 investments and was responsible for 10 portfolio companies. He invested in early and growth stage companies as well as startups focused on autonomous vehicles, infotainment, SAAS, automotive software and cleantech.
Anish joined GM in May 2005 upon graduating from Michigan State University with a bachelor degree in finance and economics and is currently pursuing his master of business administration. Anish has held various positions in GM’s Corporate Risk Management and Corporate Strategy & Business Development, and has worked on a number of key assignments, most notably Enterprise Risk Management and several corporate restructuring initiatives.
Jon Thomas
Managing Director
Jon Thomas - Woodside Capital Partners
Prior to joining Woodside Capital Partners, Jon was a Senior Portfolio Manager at Ziegler Lotsoff Capital, a boutique asset management firm in Chicago, where he managed a credit opportunities hedge fund. Prior to Ziegler Lotsoff, he co-founded a high yield and distressed hedge fund, Simran Capital, where he was also a Senior Portfolio Manager. Jon published high yield and distressed debt research while he was at sell side broker firms Advest and RW Pressprich. He was also a restructuring advisor for Crossroads LLC, where he advised debtors and creditors on restructurings both in an out of bankruptcy. He began his career as an investment banker with JP Morgan Chase, where he focused on M&A, high yield new issues, and loan syndication. While at JP Morgan he held positions in New York, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
Connie Sheng
Founding Managing Director
Connie Sheng - Nautilus Venture Partners
Connie Sheng is the founding managing partner of Nautilus Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital fund focusing on early stage investments in artificial intelligence, IoT and mobile areas. Connie is also a member of Silicon Valley China Angel and CFO of Silicon Valley Association of Industrial Innovations. Connie currently sits on several boards including DriveScale. Previously, Connie was the managing director of Global Investment at Foxconn. Connie has also worked in HP Computing, Inkjet imaging and Printing, and Enterprise System business units for over 7 years.
Dr. Sue Xu
Managing Partner
Dr. Sue Xu - Amino Capital
Dr. Sue Xu is Managing Partner at Amino Capital. She sits on the Board of Directors of YONO, and was interim CEO of CandyHouse. She has involved in the seed and A round of String Labs since 2013, which incubated one the most anticipated ICOs in 2018, DFINITY, and also participated in pre-sales and ICO of DFINITY, NuCypher, Kyber, 0X, Grid+, OmiseGo, which later became known as the first ICO unicorn.
Martin Chen
Managing Director & Partner
Martin Chen - GDV Group
G.D.V Group was founded in 2015. Since then its wholly-owned subsidiary G.D.V Capital has been dedicated to technology and blockchain investment. In the past three years, the Group has recruited a large amount of professionals and talents in blockchain and accumulated rich and practical experience. In 2017, while the global cryptocurrency market is increasing dramatically, the management team saw through the technological potential behind the blockchain bubble, was keenly aware of missing of formalized services in the industry, and decided to found G.D.V Consulting Inc., a leading blockchain integrated consulting firm. It dedicated to offering financial, media, legal and technology consulting services to the global clients.
Charles C. Comey
Partner
Charles C. Comey - Morrison Foerster
Chuck Comey is an M&A and corporate finance partner in Morrison & Foerster’s Palo Alto office. His practices focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity financings, and joint ventures and strategic alliances in the technology, consumer and life sciences sectors. He has decades of experience advising on transactions involving Chinese and Japanese investments in U.S.-based companies, as well as on outbound investments from the U.S. to Asia and Europe. Chuck opened and served as managing partner of the firm’s Shanghai office from 2003-2010, he was resident in the firm’s Tokyo office for nine years. He speaks and reads Mandarin.
Hans Tung
Managing Partner
Hans Tung - GGV Capital
Hans Tung joined GGV Capital in 2013 as a managing partner to focus on consumer mobile internet, cross-border ecommerce, IoT, and mobile social communication investments in both China and the U.S. Hans led GGV’s investment and serves on the boards of Wish, a fast growing cross border mobile commerce marketplace; Xiaohongshu, a leading active social community and recommendation app for cross-border shopping in China; Poshmark, a simple and fun way to buy and sell fashion; GrubMarket, a marketplace for local farm goods; and OfferUp, a place for consumers to buy and sell goods locally. He has invested in mobile social communication companies such as musical.ly, highly popular video social network for creating, sharing and discovering short videos; Slack, which brings all your communication together in one place; LimeBike, the leading dockless bike-sharing company in the US; Bustle, an online community providing a fresh spin on information and all subjects; Wheelwell, a market network for automotive parts and services, Peloton, a fitness technology platform and community, and Curse, a social communication platform for gamers that was acquired by Twitch. Hans is a personal investor in leading Indian e-commerce companies Flipkart and Snapdeal. He is also actively involved with GGV portfolio companies Airbnb, Flipboard, DraftKings, and Yodo1.
Chris Evdemon
Partner
Chris Evdemon - Sinovation Ventures
Chris is a Partner at Sinovation Ventures, currently based in the Bay Area after spending 10 years in Singapore and in Beijing. Earlier in his career, he was a Managing Partner at Eastern Bell Venture Capital and also served as the CEO of ICDL Asia Pacific, an organization in the computer skills certification sector with operations in 25 Asian countries which he helped turnaround and relocate to Singapore. Prior to Asia, Chris co-founded and managed ECDL Hellas in his native Athens, Greece. Chris holds a M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College in London, and an MBA from INSEAD.
Nan Zhou
Investment Director
Baidu Investment
Nan Zhou - Baidu Investment
Ms. Nan Zhou is responsible for Baidu’s newly established growth fund Baidu Investment Partners, leading the fund overseas investment with a focus on AI core tech and AI enabled vertical application, such as healthcare, transportation, industrial, fintech, logistics, etc. She developed in-depth industry insights in artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous driving. She also initiated the AI & healthcare investment coverage in Baidu. Over the past few years, she built a strong network of VCs and entrepreneurs in both Silicon Valley and Beijing. Prior to Baidu, Nan served as Assistant Vice President at Barclays Investment Banking in both NYC and Hong Kong, and led many technology IPO and M&A deals. She is a super connector, deep thinker and fast executer with extensive experiences in both U.S. and Asia. She is a very rare talent that familiar with both U.S. and Hong Kong capital markets, as well as the technology ecosystem in both Silicon Velley and Beijing. She holds MBA degree from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; and B.A. of Economics from University of Maryland at College Park. She was born and grew up in China.
Eric Benhamou
Founder & General Partner
Eric Benhamou - Benhamou Global Ventures LLC
Eric Benhamou is the Founder and General Partner of Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV). Eric has over 40 years of experience in the IT industry, including 14 years of active venture capital experience, with active investments in early stage information technology firms focused on global enterprise markets. Eric currently serves on the boards of Grid Dynamics, Ayehu, Virtual Instruments, Totango, 6d bytes, Silicon Valley Bank (SVBFG) and Finjan Holdings (FNJN). Prior to BGV, Eric Benhamou served as 3Com’s CEO until the end of 2000, and as Chairman until the acquisition of the company by HP. He also served as Palm’s CEO until the end of 2003, and as Chairman until the acquisition of the company by HP. Eric Benhamou has extensive corporate governance experience, having served on more than 25 corporate boards, including 10 publicly traded companies such as 3Com, Cypress, SVB, Finjan, Palm, Netscape, Legato and Real Networks. Through his career, Eric Benhamou participated in 7 IPO’s and 36 M&A’s. He served on the boards of several non-profit organizations and was the Founding Chairman of the Israel Venture Network. He holds a Masters degree from Stanford’s School of Engineering, a diplôme d’Ingénieur and a doctorate from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers.
Xiaohan Zhu
Managing Partner
Xiaohan Zhu - ZMT Capital
Xiaohan started ZMT Capital in 2016. Prior to ZMT, he was a Managing Director at JD Capital, one of the biggest private equity firm in China. He was in charge of JD’s International Funds with 150M AUM.
Xiaohan had executive experience in Marketing, Product Management, Strategy and Engineering at Huawei, Microsoft, Sony, Motorola. He had managed the definition and R&D for products with 100M+ users and teams with 100+ members.
Xiaohan has a MBA from Wharton, where he was a Palmer Scholar. He received his MSEE from UC San Diego and BSEE from Tsinghua University.
Wendy Kok
Venture Partner
Wendy Kok - Mighty Capital
Seasoned executive with 20 years of experience in investment management, corporate finance and tax structuring. Active in angel investments in the Bay Area. Before join Mighty Capital as the Partner, Wendy was the CFO of Sequoia Capital China. Wendy Kok has over 15 years of experience in financial, tax and investment fields.
Peter Su
Partner
Peter Su - Dentons
Peter Su is a partner in the Palo Alto office of the largest global law firm Dentons. He is a seasoned Silicon Valley business lawyer with a global vision in advising technology, energy, and life science clients across different regions with an emphasis in Silicon Valley and China. Pete has successfully advised and completed numerous high-stake cross-border corporate transactions, commercial litigation, intellectual property litigation, and patent portfolio strategy development. Pete has represented leading U.S., Chinese, and European technology, energy, and life science companies and venture funds for the past 15 years, including Apple, Cisco, Varian Medical Systems, Tencent, Lenovo, MOFCOM, Sony, SunPower, JA Solar, Sequoia Capital, Venrock, and other high profile confidential clients, covering cloud computing, search engines, smartphone technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, autonomous vehicles, solar, stem cells and healthcare.
John Yu
Managing Partner
John Yu - Oriza Ventures
Before Oriza – Founding Partner and Managing Director of WestSummit Capital, a growth capital private equity fund focusing on investment in technology sector primarily in North America. Cofounder of Advanced Communication Devices Corp. – a semiconductor device company focusing on networking in Silicon Valley.Cofounder of Viaquo Corp. – an Internet security management software company in Silicon Valley. General Manager of AgateLogic Beijing China – a programmable semiconductor device company.
Q Zhao
CEO & Founder
Q Zhao - 2RedBeans
Q Zhao is the founder of 2RedBeans, the largest dating platform for international Chinese. Incubated out of Stanford StartX and Founder Institute in Silicon Valley. She went to university at age 14 and has a Ph.D in EE from UCSD. Q was named one of the “13 Badass Immigrants in Technology” by Business Insiders.
Rashad Kurbanov
CEO & Co-Founder
Rashad Kurbanov- iownit
Rashad is a CEO and Co-founder of iownit.us He is an experienced and successful executive with more than 20 years of professional experience in the capital market. Rashad held progressively more senior roles at the largest financial services firms, including Merrill Lynch, UBS, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays Capital, BNP, RBS and CIBC. At iownit he is bringing his in-depth knowledge of capital markets and blockchain technology to create a next generation platform to improve capital formation for emerging growth companies.
Wei Jiang
Venture Partner
Wei Jiang - ZhenFund
ZhenFund (Chinese: 真格基金) is a seed stage focused venture fund founded in 2011 by Bob Xu and Victor Wang, in collaboration with Sequoia Capital China. Bob and Victor previously co-founded New Oriental (NYSE: EDU), one of the world’s largest education conglomerates. Three of Bob’s seed investments have IPOed in NYC: Shiji Jiayuan (Nasdaq: DATE) (世纪佳缘, website), LightInTheBox (Nasdaq: LITB) (website), and Jumei (NYSE: JMEI) (聚美, website). In 2016, Bob was honored on the Midas List as one of the top 100 tech investors.
ZhenFund currently leads China’s early stage venture capital scene, and is rapidly expanding its U.S. practice based in Palo Alto, CA. Its portfolio has over 150 high-growth companies, including 17zuoye, OFO, VIPKID, RED, Hero Entertainment, and Urwork. ZhenFund’s mission is to support, educate, and inspire the next generation of global entrepreneurs.
Ying Wang
Managing Director
Ying Wang - Fosun Kinzon Capital
Ying joined NLVC in 2006, bringing with her a broad skill set in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, strategic consulting and fundraising for startups. Prior to NLVC, Ying led corporate development at PeopleSupport Inc. (NASDAQ: PSPT) and spearheaded its merger and acquisition efforts. Ying also worked at GC3 Associates, a management consulting and investment firm, helping her media and technology clients with strategic planning, financing, acquisitions and divestitures. Ying’s additional past experience includes working with Boeing on a joint venture investment and business analysis at Dun & Bradstreet.
Shameem Ahsan
General Partner
Shameem Ahsan - Fenox Venture Capital
Jun Li
Managing Partner
Jun Li - Wisemont Capital
Jun is also a member of Tsinghua Entrepreneur and Executive Club (TEEC), mentoring and contributing to the startups communities in both US and China for many years.
Tom Giles
Executive Editor, Global Technology
Tom Giles - Bloomberg
Tom Giles is the executive editor of the global technology team at Bloomberg News. He previously served as managing editor of U.S. company news and team leader for U.S. technology. Tom was also the editor of Businessweek.com’s Technology channel, based in Silicon Valley. Before joining Businessweek.com in 2005, Giles was deputy technology team leader at Bloomberg News, where he spent more than eight years, with stints in New York, London and San Francisco. He holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. in politics from Princeton University.
Diane Ding Laren
Managing Partner
Diane Ding Laren - Ding Ventures
Diane Ding Laren is the founder at Ding Ventures, which is a seed venture fund that focusing on automation and AI robotics. Previously she works as a partner of Shenzhen Valley Ventures, an accelerator that focusing on helping hardware startup with the design for manufacturing phase. Before that she had held the position as head of admission and China partner for Founder Institute, world biggest startup accelerator and entrepreneur training program.
Radhika Iyengar-Emens
Managing Partner
Radhika Iyengar-Emens - DoubleNova Group
Radhika Iyengar-Emens is a Founding Partner at StarChain Ventures and Managing Partner of DoubleNova Group, a Silicon Valley-based blockchain consultancy and ICO advisory. She is a TEDx speaker, a Silicon Valley Woman of Influence, a serial entrepreneur, a crypto investor and an expert in blockchain, digital health and global entrepreneurship.
Shelley Zhuang
Founder & Managing Partner
Shelley Zhuang - 11.2 Capital
Bruce Ge
President
Bruce Ge - F50
Bruce Ge became the president of F50 in January 2018. Prior to F50, Bruce was the Founder and CEO of Jobs2Careers, which he founded in 2010. Under Bruce’s leadership, Jobs2Careers has had the honor of making the Inc. 5000 list four years in a row. Bruce enjoys studying history, and often incorporates lessons learned from history into his management training sessions. Bruce holds a B.S. from Tsinghua University and a M.S. from the University of Illinois, both in computer science.
Jalak Jobanputra
Managing Partner & Founder
Jalak Jobanputra - FuturePerfect Ventures
Jalak Jobanputra is Founding Partner of Future\Perfect Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund in NYC focused on next generation technology such as blockchain and machine learning. FPV’s portfolio includes Abra, Open Garden, Blockstream, Bitpesa, FuseMachines, Everledger and Blockchain. Jalak was awarded Institutional Investor’s Top Fintech Dealmakers in 2017 and 2016. In 2017, she was cited as a “Top 5 Investor Powering the Blockchain Boom” and CB Insights noted FPV as one of the top VC funds in blockchain “before it was cool”. Since founding the firm, she has spoken on blockchain technology at many global conferences, including the Milken Global Institute, Dutch Development Bank/FMO annual meeting, and The Economist Buttonwood Gathering. Prior to FPV, Jobanputra was the Director of Emerging Market Mobile Investments at Omidyar Network, a philanthrocapitalist fund started by Pierre Omidyar, co-founder of eBay. Previously, she worked at Intel Capital investing in enterprise software in Silicon Valley from 1999-2003. as well as New Venture Partners and the NYC Investment Fund where she formed one of NYC’s first seed funds and helped establish the Fintech Innovation Lab in 2010. She started her career as a media/tech/telecom investment banker in NYC and London. Jobanputra is also active in supporting education reform and social entrepreneurship. She served as a Trustee of Achievement First Bushwick Charter Schools (Brooklyn). She is on the Board of Directors for the Center for an Urban Future, Advisory Board of L’Oreal’s Women in Digital Initiative, member of Mayor DeBlasio’s Broadband Taskforce, and former Access to Capital Committee member of the US Secretary of State Clinton Women’s Leadership Council. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.S. in Economics (concentration in Finance) from The Wharton School and a B.A. in Communications from the Annenberg School. She received her MBA from Kellogg in 1999.
Mei Xu
Partner
Mei Xu - Moss Adams LLP
Mei has been practicing public accounting for twenty-five years. She specializes in providing consulting and compliance services to private equity and venture capital industry. She has extensive experiences in US filings for foreign funds as well as their foreign portfolio companies. She assists fund GP entities, management companies, and fund investors to navigate their US and state tax roadmaps. Prior to Moss Adams, Mei was a Director with a Big 4 accounting firm.
Walter De Brouwer
CEO & Co-Founder
Walter De Brouwer - Doc.ai
Walter A. De Brouwer Ph.D., is the founder and CEO of doc.ai, an AI company with a presence on the Blockchain that uses Machine Learning on Precision Medicine. The company started in August 2016 and together with DLA Piper closed a successful Initial Coin Offering in 2017 (Concurrent Offerings Under Rule 506(c) And Regulation S) to decentralize its AI and allow anyone to start training their own AI. The Palo-Alto based crypto company is using Deep Neural Networks on rare diseases that have a genetic root.
Olgica Bakajin
CEO
Olgica Bakajin - Porifera
Olgica Bakajin is CEO of Porifera, Inc. Since founding the company in 2009, Olgica has led Porifera, applying its unique, world-leading forward-osmosis technology to problems in ZLD, water reuse, and food and beverage processing around the world. Prior to founding Porifera, Dr. Bakajin was an accomplished scientist who performed pioneering work on fluid flow through carbon nanotubes, has co-authored 13 issued, and several pending patents as well as numerous publications that have been cited over 12,000 times. Olgica holds an undergraduate degree in physics and chemistry from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University.
Dr. Guo-Liang Yu
Chairman
Dr. Guo-Liang Yu - Crown Biosicence Inc.
Dr. Yu, a brilliant innovator, successful serial entrepreneur and generous coach, has extensive knowledge in developing technologies, founding startups, leading companies to success, and building and fostering communities to support other scientists/entrepreneurs. In this workshop, Dr. Yu will share his invaluable knowledge and perspectives on how to make an impact in building successful companies.
Guy Blanchard
CFO
Guy Blanchard - AeroFarms
AeroFarms is leading the way to address global food production by owning and operating local farms that grow flavorful, healthy, pesticide-free leafy greens in a sustainable and socially responsible way. With state-of-the-art aeroponic technology and LED lighting, we utilize a totally controlled growing environment without sun or soil and minimizing transportation miles. Our proven approach is being used in four farms worldwide.
Thad Price
CEO
Thad Price - Talroo
Thad Price is CEO at Talroo (formerly Jobs2Careers), where he provides leadership, strategy, and guidance to all departments to ensure the company is moving in the right direction with the right talent. With more than 15 years of experience in online recruitment and the job search vertical, Thad uses his cross-functional experience to turn client feedback into innovative products that help companies hire better. Under Thad’s leadership, Talroo continues its mission of disruption in the industry. Prior to joining Talroo, he was a VP of Business Development at Job.com. Thad holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Mary Washington.
Renee Wang
CEO & Founder
Renee Wang - Castbox
Renee founded Castbox in 2016, and has spearheaded meteoric rise over the past two years. Throughout this period, she has not only built a global team of 50 talents but has closed more than $30 million dollars worth of investments. Renee was a part of the global mobile advertisement team for Google Beijing, Google Dublin and Google Japan. She was the 7th employee and Android engineer at Umeng, a China-based startup acquired by Alibaba, and was one of the earliest Android developers in 2008. Renee has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Peking University.
Mona Li
CEO
Mona Li - HYSTA SVC Inc.
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, SVC Venture Club is the largest U.S.-China investment network with over 200 partners in major global cities. We aim to construct an unprecedented global platform to serve investors, entrepreneurs, business leaders and professionals. We connect distinguished talents and entrepreneurs with experienced investors and mentors by creating an organic business ecosystem with lifetime valuable resources, such as high quality deal flows, global business collaborations and multidimensional investment opportunities. Co-hosting annual startup contests with UCAHP and TEEC, SVC Venture Club has helped over 2000 startups with direct investments of 200 million dollars from the Chinese government, technology innovation campus, and venture capitals. We, SVC Venture Club, are constantly bridging the gap between investors and startups to achieve the next big tech innovation.
Michael Fox
MIT Venture Mentor
Michael Fox - Global Corporate Venturing
Michael is a senior strategist, rainmaker and implementation Jedi. He’s a serial entrepreneur, launched the VAIO for SONY, worked as an Entrepreneur In Residence for a $5B fund where he grew one portfolio company from a valuation of $50M to $300M in five months and is currently a thought leader in the Corporate Venture space. Michael also teaches entrepreneurship at an MBA program in Design Strategy in San Francisco and in Holland.
Alexander Girau
CEO & Founder
Alexander Girau - Advano Technologies
Dr. Xiaohua Yang
Professor of International Business
Dr. Xiaohua Yang - University of San Francisco
Dr. Xiaohua Yang is a full professor of International Business and is the founding director of China Business Studies Initiative in the School of Management at the University of San Francisco. She specializes in internationalization of firms, international R&D strategic alliances, and foreign market entry strategies. Dr. Yang has served on numerous boards and has consulted companies and government agencies in a number of countries, including US, China, Australia, Finland, and Armenia. She has been interviewed by CBS, Xinhua Daily, San Francisco Business Times, Daily Economic News, Wenzhou Daily, Sing Tao Daily, Chinese Biz News and Armenia National TV. She is frequently invited to speak at international conferences, forums and symposia, including HYSTA annual conferences, Berkeley China Forum, Wenzhou Pareto Public Policy Colloquium, and Harvard conferences on China Goes Global.
John Webley
CEO, Founder & Chairman
John Webley - Trevi Systems Inc.
John Webley, MSEE, DSc. (Hon) With his two co-founders, John grew Advanced Fibre to a market capitalization of $6 billion in 1999 and thereafter he founded Turin Networks, with a subsequent sale to Dell for $700mm in 2007. John then founded Trevi Systems (2010) to commercialize a promising Forward Osmosis water purification technology which is in large scale pilot roll-out.
Karsten Temme
CEO & Co-Founder
Karsten Temme - Piviot Bio
For years, Karsten has been fascinated with the limitless potential of the unseen microbes that inhabit our world. While earning his Ph.D. at University of California, San Francisco, his graduate research focused on enhancing the nitrogen-fixing potential of soil-borne microbes. Seeking to produce “more than scientific journal articles” and driven by the desire to create meaningful change in the world, Karsten partnered with his friend and colleague, Alvin Tamsir, to create Pivot Bio.
Carter Laren
Cryptography Expert
Carter Laren - University of Pennsylvania
Carter is the co-founder of Gateway, the premier accelerator for startups in the cannabis space. He is also a Director and mentor for the Founder Institute, the world’s largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program. Previously, he developed and built the Founder Lab program for seed stage startups and is co-founder of Pitch.Coach. Carter also served as the CEO of Creative Allies and co-founded MOX, an online 24/7 streaming music video network focused on electronic music.
With a background in engineering and cryptography, Carter’s first startup experience was at Cryptography Research, where served as the Chief Architect of Content Protection. The company was sold to Rambus in 2011 for $350M. He also co-invented a new content protection technology and drove its adoption as a standard for Blu-ray discs. He led and subsequently sold the business to Rovi in 2007 for $70M. He is the owner of Inara Ventures, through which he both invests in and advises seed-stage startups. He continues to serve on the boards of and advise several startups, including OhMiBod, Creative Allies, Chaperone, Eleven, Lily, 100% Food, and Kangaroo Health.
Dr. Adrian Kaehler
CEO
Dr. Adrian Kaehler - Giant.ai
Dr. Adrian Kaehler is a recognized expert and inventor in numerous technology domains. Throughout his career, his primary focus has been on intellectual and practical leadership for complex technology innovation efforts for government, as well as both privately or publicly held companies. He holds a Ph.D. degree in theoretical particle physics from Columbia University which, after enrolling in university at the age of 14 and graduating with a bachelor’s degree at 18, he received at the age of 25. Winner of the 1998 Gordon Bell Prize, the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and as a researcher at Stanford University, his fields of expertise include robotics, deep learning, artificial intelligence, machine learning, physics, electrical engineering, computer algorithms, machine vision, biometrics, computer games, system engineering, human machine interface, numerical programming, and design. He is the author of numerous papers and over 30 patents in these and other subjects, as well as two a bestselling books on computer vision. Currently, he is CEO of Giant.AI, about which we can tell you nothing.
Hyunjun Park
CEO
Hyunjun Park - Catalog Technologies
Hyunjun is passionate about using biology to address complex challenges. As co-founder and CEO of Catalog, he is leading the effort to handle the explosion of digital information, using cutting edge tools of synthetic biology. Hyunjun obtained his BS at Seoul National University, PhD in microbiology at the University of Wisconsin Madison, and conducted postdoctoral research at MIT.
Keegan Kirkpatrick
CEO
Keegan Kirkpatrick - RedWorks Construction Technologies Inc.
Keegan Kirkpatrick is a Founder and CEO at RedWorks Construction Technologies Inc. a startup creating 3D printers to make building materials as strong as stone using nothing but dirt. An aerospace engineer by training and trade, Keegan led RedWorks to the finals of the NASA Centennial Challenge, presenting a vision for building with just the dirt beneath your feet. Since then RedWorks has brought their technology to prototype and is working to bring product to market, using principles for building in Space to build better on Earth.
Robbi Magnuson
President
Robbi Magnuson - EFD Corporation
Robbi Magnuson joined EFD as President in 2014 and was also elected to the EFD Corp. Board of Directors in 2014. Since 2005, Magnuson has served as counsel for the Magnuson Law Firm and more recently served as counsel for Magnuson Hotels, the world’s largest independent hotel group, representing 2000 independent hotel properties and resorts across North America and the UK. From 1995 to 2004, Magnuson was a partner at the law firm of Witherspoon, Kelley, Davenport and Toole, P.S., the oldest law firm in the State of Washington. Magnuson has a law degree from George Washington University and a B.S. degree in finance and economics from the University of Idaho.
Ned Tozun
CEO
Ned Tozun - d.light
Ned co-founded d.light in 2007 and serves as the company’s CEO. d.light has been a pioneer in off-grid solar energy and has impacted over 80 million people to date through a wide range of affordable solar products. Ned has been recognized by Forbes as one of the world’s top thirty social entrepreneurs.
Virgil Zhang
CEO
Virgil Zhang - Archer Software Corporation
Virgil Zhang is the founder of Archer, an Ad-Tech company that uses AI and Blockchain technologies to help brands measure and achieve an average sales increase of 48.7% in the physical world. Previously, Virgil worked at Intel Labs as an IOT software researcher and he also worked at Microsoft as a Technology Strategist.
Dr. Chao Wang
CEO & Founder
Dr. Chao Wang - Ambilight Inc
Dr. Chao Wang obtained his Bachelor and PhD in Polymer Science from Tsinghua University, China. After four years’ research experience at Stanford University, Dr. Wang joined University of California as an assistant professor. In 2017, he quit his faculty position and founded Ambilight Inc in Milpitas and Shenzhen, focusing on a disruptive technology of using roll to roll printing to produce smar thin films for dynamic glass at extremely low cost.
Chris Pickett
CEO
Chris Pickett - Digilens, Inc.
Chris is the CEO of Digilens, a company that is enabling augmented reality applications with its holographic waveguide optics. Throughout his career, he has used his background in engineering, law and business to develop and implement business plans that have successfully resulted in high margin revenue streams and sustained growth. Previously, Chris was the CEO of Pelican Imaging, a computational camera company, as well as a senior executive in several other technology companies. Chris started his career in 1994 at Tessera Technologies, a start up that went public in 2003 and had a public valuation of approximately $2.25 billion when he left in 2007.
Ron Zaidman, MBA, MTCM
President & CEO
Ron Zaidman - Five Branches University
Mr. Zaidman is President and Co-founder of Five Branches University, Graduate School of Traditional Chinese Medicine with campuses in Santa Cruz and San Jose California. Mr. Zaidman received an MBA from Stanford, was a management consultant specializing in strategic planning and management information systems, and an entrepreneur who established two international companies and Five Branches University. He has studied Asian culture for over 30 years and is dedicated to the development of Traditional Chinese and Integrative Medicine education and healthcare in the U.S. and internationally. Mr. Zaidman lived in Europe and South America and is fluent in five languages. He holds Doctoral and Master’s degrees in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. His long-time hobbies and interests are skiing, Aikido, Chinese culture, family, travel, Buddhism, education and above all, Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Hank Stringer
CEO & Founder
Hank Stringer - Stringer Executive Search Services
Hank Stringer has experience as a successful executive, executive recruiter, consultant, author, industry speaker, entrepreneur, founder, visionary, and innovator in the creation and use of Internet technology for the recruitment process. Co-Founder, President: Hire.com; Co-Founder, President: Pedley-Stringer Technology Search; Co-author: “Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business” Rusty Rueff/Hank Stringer Prentice-Hall 2006
David Cao
Founder & Chairman
David Cao - F50
Michael Heinrich
CEO & Founder
Michael Heinrich - Oh My Green
Michael is dedicating his time to making the world healthy and blissful. He is Founder & CEO of Oh My Green a YCombinator, Stanford StartX, and Grand Central Tech company. He’s a DFJ Entrepreneurial Leadership Fellow chosen by Stanford. He helped scale a few startup projects such as Purpose.com and StartupDigest (acquired by StartupWeekend). Prior, Michael joined Bridgewater Associates, a leading hedge fund in Westport, CT where he was responsible for portfolio construction. He was also a management consultant at Bain & Company in San Francisco, working with clients ranging from medium sized to Fortune 500 businesses in the technology, consumer retail, and financial services sectors. He worked in a product management capacity at SAP and Microsoft, helping shape the strategic vision of xApps Duet as well as MSDN academic alliance and ImagineCup. Michael graduated from Stanford and UC Berkeley and conducted research at Harvard. Michael enjoys daily meditations and instructed at Stanford–his Hacking Consciousness class was the only Stanford class to be selected for iTunes U’s Best of 2014 Collection.
Rami Cohen, MD
CEO & Founder
Rami Cohen, MD - Telesofia Medical Ltd
Dr. Rami Cohen is the CEO and Founder of Telesofia Medical, which makes medical information clear using personalized videos. The multiple awards winning (e.g. “Gartner Cool Vendor”, “Frost & Sullivan Best Practice”), patent-protected-platform can automatically generate videos for patients based on their clinical data. Dr. Cohen started his technology career in 1997 at ICQ (acquired by AOL in 1998, for US$407M) and since helped several corporates and start-ups with their product, marketing, business, and innovation management. He also holds a medical doctor degree from the Tel Aviv University and worked at the Vascular Surgery department in Tel-Aviv Sourasky (Ichilov) and Assaf Harofeh Medical Centers.
Marwan Forzley
CEO
Marwan Forzley - Veem
Marwan Forzley is the Co-Founder and CEO of Veem, a next-generation global payment provider which enables businesses to quickly and securely send and receive payments in local currency. Veem uses the blockchain as a new settlement rail to enable frictionless and inexpensive payments. Prior to Align Commerce, Forzley founded and served as CEO of eBillme, an online payments solution that extended online banking to the merchant’s checkout process. After selling eBillme to Western Union, Forzley joined the Western Union’s digital team as General Manager, eCommerce and Strategic Partnerships. With extensive experience and expertise in eCommerce infrastructure, mobile payments, content delivery, and alternative payments, Forzley is one of the top entrepreneurs working to pioneer better payment systems.
Nathan Evans
CXO & Co-Founder
Nathan Evans - Fictiv
Nate Evans is a designer, artist, and entrepreneur. As co-founder and Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Fictiv he’s responsible for motivating and helping a talented team of creatives working to democratize manufacturing.
When he’s not in a design review, kickoff meeting, or flipping pancakes for the team, you can find him backpacking with friends and studying the landscape for the perfect black and white shot with his film cameras.
Inspired by the growing need for a unified experience across hardware and software products, his passion lies at the intersection of design, business, and technology to fuel innovation.
